Chelsea linked with Messi as Barcelona continue early-season implosion

The annual Messi-to-Chelsea balderdash is here and this time, it isn’t even based on his Instagram activity. Instead, it’s just another log on the growing dumpster fire that is Barcelona’s season thus far.

Having lost “200%-staying” Neymar to PSG — they may have received more than a million Euros for each of those percentage points, but that’s scant consolation — they have now put in two terrible performances against Real Madrid in the two-legged Spanish Super Cup, losing 5-1 on aggregate, and then tried to appease the unrest by spending €40m on Spurs-reject Paulinho as they flounder with other, better transfer pursuits.

And you thought Chelsea were in a pickle!

But wait, it gets better for Barca, and by better I mean worse.

Lionel “Mes que un player” Messi has yet to sign the contract extension that was announced with much fanfare last month and while the club’s leadership assure that Messi will sign, the fact remains that he hasn’t. His contract is set to expire next summer. Could you imagine if he didn’t sign?

If you can’t, here’s the Express (and BetStars, ready to collect on all the sucker-bets) to do the heavy lifting for you.

Despite the Neymar shenanigans, this is obviously nothing more then a curiosity and a bit of a laugh. But hey, it’s not really summer without the stray Messi-to-Chelsea rumor. Managed to squeeze this in well before the transfer deadline. Now let’s do the same with a few real signings, shall we?